In the early years of business, it is wise to use entry-level accounting software that will often more than meet your needs, after all, why spend precious pennies on features you won’t use? However, as your business grows you may find that your accounts software is limiting you, it might be causing your team headaches when trying to run detailed reports or struggling to integrate with other vital business applications, among other things. It’s at this stage you must consider upgrading your accounting package to something that can grow with your business for many years to come.

In this blog post we are going to help you identify when you have outgrown your accounting software. The longer you hold off upgrading, the bigger the chance of missing key accounting information that you will need for your business to grow.

Users

Many low-cost, low-end accounting software packages offer you a limited number of users that can access your system. Now that your team has grown you may find that there are not enough users available. In addition to this your software may not allow multiple users into your account simultaneously, this will slow down productivity and ultimately hinder your team’s performance.

Integration

Many businesses require multiple systems to operate their business, for example an e-commerce website may need to communicate with logistics, accounting and a warehouse to manage day-to-day orders. If your current accounting software doesn’t integrate within this process then a duplication of data input is required, slowing the sales process down and wasting resource and therefore reducing ROI (Return on Investment.)

Multiple locations

Does your business operate in multiple locations that require a central point of consolidation? Many low-end accounting packages struggle with this level of data input. Combine this problem with a limited number of users (see point one) then your business growth will be stunted due to the limitations of your accounts software.

Reporting

Using a piece of accounting software to record information and input data is one thing, extracting this information into clear, concise reports is another. Your team need to be able to present all of the facts and figures for you to correctly assess the profitability of your business. Using software that lacks reporting capabilities could mean that the reports you are looking at are not giving you a true picture of the businesses health. In addition to this, some accounting software make pulling off reports an arduous task, meaning that more time is wasted getting to the information in the first place.

Support

Using accounting software is a complicated business, working with a partner that offers technical and user support as part of the package is vital. Most smaller, off the shelf accountancy packages don’t offer support and those that do will often charge a small fortune for the privilege. If your finding that your team are needing more and more support on your current package this is a clear indication that it’s no longer working for you and upgrading is vital.

Here at Oakley Global we specialise in working with businesses to help them grow. We are Sage 200 and Sage 300 experts. Our specialist team can help you identify the weaknesses in your current system and help you transfer over onto a more robust and long-term solution.